My Sisters Telegraphic: Women in the Telegraph Office ... - Monoskop

c h a p t e r f o u r
Women’s Issues in the Telegraph Office
AN important aid to the study of women in the telegraph industry is
the presence of a detailed written record of the gender issues that
arose and the debate between men and women on a variety of
gender- and work-related issues, which appeared in the pages of the telegraphers’
journals in the 1860s and 1870s. Often authored by women operators,
these letters to the editors provide a rare view of the issues that
concerned and engaged women workers in the mid-nineteenth century.
While many of these issues were specific to the employment of women in
the telegraph industry, they also provide a valuable insight into the ideological
debates that arose when women first began entering the workforce in
large numbers.
The Entry of Women into Telegraphy in the United
States and the Debate in the T ELEGRAPHER
Many women became wage earners for the first time during the Civil War;
drafting men into the army created job vacancies, and the women they left
behind needed income to support themselves and their children. More than
one hundred thousand new jobs were opened up for women during the war,
particularly in mills, factories, and arsenals. 1
During the Civil War, women were welcomed into the telegraph industry,
often at wages equivalent to those of male operators, because of the
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